If you’ve been waiting for just the right time to plant perennials, we have good news. August and September are the perfect time to plant those tiny seeds. People plant perennials for a variety of reasons. Some are establishing a perennial pasture for their livestock, others might be looking to provide a year round pollinator habitat and others may be planting a perennial cash crop they intend to harvest for the next few years. Whatever your context, be sure to have a good plan in place before heading out to the field to plant.
Using Cover Crops in Preparation for Perennials
Cover crops are widely used to help prepare the soil for a perennial planting. Oats for example are commonly added to perennial mixes to act as a nurse crop. As they are quick to germinate, they help to stabilize the soil and protect perennial seeds from washing away or being eaten by birds.
Cover crops can also help boost soil health in preparation for a perennial planting. A couple seasons of annual cover crops can do wonders to bring back biology, increase soil organic matter and begin improving soil structure which will make your perennial seeding more successful in the long run. Most perennial species prefer a balanced fungal to bacterial ratio in the soil. If you’re converting old crop ground to perennials, it’s likely your soil is dominated by bacterial species and lacking in fungal species. Using specific cover crops that house mycorrhizal fungi such as oats, barley, sorghum sudan, sunflowers, and vetch you can start to re-establish those fungal populations and prime your soil for upcoming perennial seedlings. We usually see great success with this method after about two seasons of planting annual cover crops.
Planting Perennials
The first key to getting seeds established is the planting phase. Many times, the planting method is decided based on equipment you have on hand. We almost always recommend drilling seed to achieve the best seed to soil contact and control the seeding depth most accurately. Planting with a no-till drill works great as you don’t have to till and expose the soil to late August heat and sun which will quickly diminish soil moisture.
|
